"A whole nation is now huddled around one tribal bonfire to lament its bitter fate, mourn its dead and ignore the dead of the other side. As usual, it views itself as the victim, turns the enemy into Satan and waits, inactive and bravely unthinking, for the calamity that is about to befall it and for which it is in no small measure to blame."

The "peace process" of Rabin was all along from the very start just a continuation of the occupation by other more crafty means. And no amount of torturing and bribing, of killing and maiming, was able to make it otherwise. Indeed the volcano is now nearing explosion. But this one, unlike mother nature, has a label "Made in Israel" with an associated stamp "Made in USA".

UNDER THE VOLCANO

By Gideon Levy

[Ha'aretz, 10 June 2001] There has never been such unity here. Listen to the Israeli public discourse and you hear only one voice. From one terrorist attack to the next, the nails are being driven into the coffin of the concept of pluralism in Israel; the attack at the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv was the last nail. The horror of the event sent everyone into a state of paralysis: children and parents, right and left - everyone agrees with everyone else. Fear became the teacher and brought about a consensus that would shame no totalitarian regime. One nation, one stand. Its basic elements: there is no one to talk to, Arafat is not a partner, we have to do "something," to deliver a final crushing blow once and for all. We offered them everything and they chose war, there will not be peace in this generation, we will live by the sword for all time.

And overlaying it all, an appalling wave of hatred for Arabs has seized everyone. Who doesn't hate Arabs a little these days? Who still believes them? Who thinks it's possible to make peace with them?

Where are the days when it used to be said that for every two Israelis there were three opinions? Now, every three Israelis have barely one opinion. From being an ultra-involved nation, where every social gathering and every taxi trip was always accompanied by lively political arguments, the nation in recent months has become a choir that sings one song, in one voice. Beyond the monotony, and the danger such a development poses for democracy, it holds out a more immediate risk. The fact that no one is asking tough questions, that no one is proposing bold alternatives and that the public agenda is becoming so uniform, wholly aimed at the next war, should be cause for great concern. Like a village living below a volcano and waiting complacently for the next eruption, Israel is watching events unfold as though watching a natural disaster over which no one has any control, and muttering its well-worn slogans. So we're headed for another terrible eruption of bloodletting, that's how it goes.

Above all we are witnessing the evaporation of the left; but there is hardly anything left of the center, either. "We are all settlers," say people who not long ago styled themselves leftists and centrists; it is not only writers' widows, such as Edna Shabtai, who are turning right. The thin shell of the peace camp broke apart in an instant, after its enlightened members found out that the Palestinians were not managing their affairs exactly according to the model the peaceniks had created for them. The Palestinians resorted to violence and dared to demand the right of return. The conclusion: the left was wrong. The result: an almost wholesale drift to the right. The media, the leaders of the peace camp, together with Labor, the Likud and Rehavam Ze'evi - all are declaiming almost the same message. Can anyone seriously point today to substantial differences not only between Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres, but even between Yossi Sarid and Limor Livnat? The right says, honestly, that it aspires to fighting a war, while the left says that war is inevitable because of Arafat. That is a very minor difference - too minor.

The lip service the left is paying in the form of calls for a freeze on construction in the settlements or for the establishment of a Palestinian state, is pathetic: too little and too late.

It didn't have to be this way. The voice that has been muted is now more essential than ever. Israel needs another voice now, not just that of the brave but minuscule Gush Shalom (the Peace Bloc). Where are the intellectuals and the statesmen to assert that the Palestinians could never have accepted what Ehud Barak offered, that the way it was offered outraged them even more? Who will declare that a just solution to the conflict must include not only a fair territorial solution but also a just solution for the refugees, including recognition of their right of return?

Who will speak out in a loud voice to offer a truth different to the one now sweeping the country from end to end? Who will state that the occupation is an act of violence, the most terrible of all, that terrorism is not only suicide bombers but also firing missiles at inhabited homes? Who will assert the truth: That there are too few differences between a person who blows himself up outside a discotheque and kills 20 boys and girls, and a person who frivolously fires shells at a house in which an infant girl has just finished drinking milk from her mother's breast? That depriving a whole nation of freedom of movement and placing that nation in a prison is an act of violence more cruel than any in the past, and stirs a people to fight using whatever means it has? That the incitement in the Palestinian media is not that much worse than the incitement on Israeli radio and television? That the present war is first and foremost a war over Netzarim and Yitzhar, and that if they or all the settlements did not exist our situation would be immeasurably better? That the roots of Palestinian terrorism have to be sought in the Israeli occupation and not in the Palestinians' genes?

Almost no one is asking these questions. A whole nation is now huddled around one tribal bonfire to lament its bitter fate, mourn its dead and ignore the dead of the other side. As usual, it views itself as the victim, turns the enemy into Satan and waits, inactive and bravely unthinking, for the calamity that is about to befall it and for which it is in no small measure to blame.

June 2001

Magazine

TURKEY HEADING TOWARD "SOCIAL EXPLOSION"...i.e., "REVOLUTION" (June 30, 2001) In geostrategic and military terms, the unnamed U.S.-Israel-Turkish military alliance that emerged full-blown during the last decade -- of course with the Turks using the "peace process" as the excuse for such close relations between Turkey and Israel -- was one of the most important developments.

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTIONS EMERGING (June 29, 2001) In a sense there is an arms race under way at this time of a different kind -- a race for whether weapons of mass destruction will be used in a serious and ongoing way should a new war break out first in the Subcontinent over Kashmir or in the Middle East over Palestine.

LABOR AND LIKUD MORE ALIKE THAN DIFFERENT - MER FLASHBACK (June 29, 2001) Long before what was to happen with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (remember him?),
MER was informing who he really was and what to really expect. Same with regard to
Shimon Peres. Expect the same cutting-edge information and analysis in the months ahead.

Washington Scene: THE HISTORICAL MOMENT (June 27, 2001) The Middle East region totters now between further repression and oppression, terrorism and war. The outcome in the short term is indeterminate of course. But the winds and directions are clear; however much camaflouged by the politicians and the usually gullible mass media.

THREATCON DELTA ORDERED TODAY (June 22, 2001) One day they will probably get Osama bin-Laden, former confident of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia, former CIA asset against the once mighty Soviet Empire, now arch nemesis of the American Empire.

"ALGERIA IS IN CRISIS" (June 22, 2001) "The Battle of Algiers" left North Africa biggest country terribly bloodied and traumatized. This time it was French imperialism and the French military that did the dirty horrifying deeds.

EGYPT ARMING WHILE REGIME IS SHAKING (June 21, 2001) Arab States, including Egypt, are arming at a growing pace. Even combined they are still no match to defeat Israel. But their detterence capabilities are growing, they might be able to seriously bloody Israel in years ahead...

ARAFAT'S FLUNKIES (June 20, 2001) There are many reasons the Palestinian people are suffering so terribly, worse by the year in fact, and are now endangered by the possibility of a second "nakba" (disaster).

"THE SECOND HALF OF 1948" (June 20, 2001) Official declarations and many reports in the Israeli media indicate that the Israeli military and political leadership are aiming, eventually, at a total destruction of the Palestinian authority, and, with it, the process of Oslo, which is now dominantly considered by them a 'historical mistake'.

TELEGRAPHING WHAT I S TO COME (June 19, 2001) Arafat had two roles he had been assigned. That's why none other than former "terrorist" Arafat was the most frequent visitor to the White House during the years 1993 through 2000.

SHARON'S LONG MARCH: NEXT TO WASHINGTON THEN TO THE ATTACK (June 19, 2001) Ariel Sharon is proving what others before him, including Generals Patton and MacArthur of American legend, learned about modern warfare. There's a heavy messure of political theatrics and personal legend involved in making war, more so now than ever in this age of instant TV and the Intenet.

SHARON Coming To US Again To Coordinate War Plans (June 19, 2001) Sharon is coming to the States again next week. Only a firm "absolutely not" from the Americans is likely now to prevent much further brutal subjugation of the Palestinians; quite possibly the exiling again of Yasser Arafat.

ARIEL SHARON - WAR CRIMINAL? (June 15, 2001) Years ago the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim, was brought before a mock international court through a joint effort of Home Box Office (HBO) in the USA and a major British TV network. The question before the court was whether Kurt Waldheim was possibly guilty of war crimes ...

PREPARING FOR DESTRUCTION (June 15, 2001) "If a cease-fire does indeed take hold, then all the better...
If Arafat rejects the document or professes to accept it,
but does not fulfill his part of the bargain, Israel will win
more points in the court of world opinion and a more
conducive political backdrop will be created for a
military response to Palestinian violence."

ALGERIANS FIRE INTO DEMONSTRATING CROWDS TODAY (June 14, 2001) The Berbers in Algeria, the brutal civil war in Sudan, the Palestinians in the once Holy Land, the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, the ongoing Kashmir crisis -- all conflicts exploding throughout the greater Middle East region today in 2001, all conflicts the legacy of Western colonial policies of yesteryear and American imperial policies of today.

MARCH TO WAR CONTINUES: ISRAEL WARNS IRAN AGAIN (June 14, 2001)
There are major historical and military reasons why Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton (representing of course huge constituencies who at the time pushed them to pursue the policies they did) pressed Yasser Arafat so hard to sign an agreement at Camp David.

THE SO-CALLED "AGREEMENT" (June 13, 2001) There is no real "agreement". There is a dictate. Yasser Arafat is in no position anymore to do much other than what his American handlers tell him to do; a day of reckoning he brought on himself by so many mistakes and so much corruption over such a long time.

Another Muslim Rep Foolishly Plays To The Cameras On Behalf of the Regimes (June 13, 2001) A week ago outside the State Department one of the latest Muslim organization reps to grab for the cameras -- Khalid Turaani -- declared in loud tones how the time had finally come for "civil disobedience" and how he and the other leaders of the assembled Muslim "client organizations" were going to get arrested in a peaceful protest ...

HASHEMITE KINGDOM CLOSES BORDERS TO PALESTINIANS (June 13, 2001) The Hashemite Regime has always, right from the start, been in deep collusion with the Israelis and since World War II with the CIA. This latest step to close off Jordan to Palestinians -- to essentially put a seal on the jar which now contains the Palestinians ...

CLOVIS MAKSOUD DID IT TWENTY YEARS AGO, APPEARING WITH SHIMON PERES (June 11, 2001) Those who know Raghida Dergham know what she is, and its certainly not a truly independent journalist. She's been an opportunist for a very long time, and she's used her sexuality to climb the ladder with backing from one influential Arab diplomat or royal along the way for a long time now.

CALAMITY AHEAD (June 10, 2001) "A whole nation is now huddled around one tribal
bonfire to lament its bitter fate, mourn its dead and
ignore the dead of the other side. As usual, it views
itself as the victim, turns the enemy into Satan and
waits, inactive and bravely unthinking, for the
calamity that is about to befall it and for which it is
in no small measure to blame."

WAR POSSIBLE WARNS TOP SAUDI (June 10, 2001) Normally one of the last places one would turn for truthfulness, integrity,
and information would be the Saudi royal family. Currently headed by a former
playboy who drank, gambled, and womanized his life away in Beirut and London --
before assuming the throne -- it is the Saudi "royal family
which epitomizes the "client regime" realities that have so fractured, weakened,
and prostrated the whole region once known as "the Arab world."

CHRISTIAN LEADERS: WRONG TIME, WRONG ADVICE, WRONG REASONS (June 8, 2001)
"Be assured of our prayers for you and the
President and all others in the Administration
as you seek to forge a fair and just policy
for the two peoples and three faiths who
share a common religious heritage in the
land we hold as holy."

THE CRUEL REGIMES OF ARABDOM (June 7, 2001) There are huge cultural gulfs between East and West, old world and new
world. And of course the West is extraordinarily dominant these days not only
it terms of financial and military might, but also in terms of cultural
influence and "moral" standards.

SHARON'S RISE (June 7, 2001) "In reality the Zionist and Hashemite leaderships
continue to plot how to control and repress the
Palestinians in ever more crafty and ever more
duplicitous ways."

ARAFAT 4 YEARS AGO - MER FLASHBACK (June 6, 2001) Last year MER first carried information about the
increasingly close CIA, Shinbet, and Mossad connections with Yasser Arafat's
"Palestinian Authority".

MUSLIM ORGS EMBARRASS THEMSELVES AT STATE DEPT (June 5, 2001) With much press fanfare (they just love to play to the cameras) leaders of half a dozen Muslim American groups held a press conference gathering across from the State Department today.

DESPITE THE LULL, WAR CLOUDS LOOM (June 4, 2001) Despite the lull, there are many ominous signs of impending major attacks
against the occupied Palestinians about to take place; and there is a real
possibility of regional war.

EGYPTIANS THREATEN WAR! (June 4, 2001) When the American Secretary of State cancels long-planned foreign travel and
publicly warns of the "abyss" from which "there may no return" you can bet the
situation behind-the-scenes is far more dangerous and explosive than is publicly
realized.

24-HOURS AND COUNTING (June 2, 2001) "Americans should not travel to Gaza at the present time and
those who
live there should depart to a safer location when they can do
so."
U.S. Embassy,
Israel

HATED RAJOUB GETS READY (June 2, 2001) With the days of Yasser Arafat maybe coming to an end one way or another,
with Feisal Husseini passed from the scene, with the other Palestinian tough
guys bottled up in Gaza, the frontrunner strong man to "control" the
Palestinian people throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem appears to be Jibril
Rajoub.

ARAFAT'S LEGACY (June 2, 2001) Yasser Arafat was hired, courted, and well-paid to control his own people and
lead them, however much they tried to resist, to the Apartheid-style arrangement
the Israelis always had in mind with the so-called "Oslo Peace Process".

ISRAELIS PLANNING BLITZKRIEG? (June 1, 2001) For a long time now we have been desperately warning about what the true Israeli
intentions are. We have also been warning that the Palestinians are not at all
prepared for these eventualities, neither with the terrible leadership provided
by the "Palestinian Authority" nor for the world-wide information and public
relations battle that accompanies all major developments in our world these
days.